The Coca-Cola Man and the Coca-Cola Fleet

“Trucks came and with them a better class of Salesmen,” George S. Cobb Sr. wrote in a reflective article about his early years as a bottler.

Mr. Leroy Rampy. West Point Coca-Cola salesman. Photograph courtesy of Anita Bostick.

Mr. Rampy’s business card. On loan from Anita Bostick.

Salesman’s Creed. Item on loan from Anita Bostick, daughter of Leroy Rampy.

A salesman’s creed was developed to guide Coca-Cola Salesmen and the sight of these men, well-turned out in their attractive uniforms and known for their courtesy, further enhanced the Coca-Cola image.

 

Leroy Rampy, a salesman with the West Point Coca-Cola Company, joined their ranks before leaving to serve in World War II. He returned safely home and quickly reassumed his Coca-Cola uniform. Remaining with the Company his entire working life, Mr. Rampy became a familiar and respected face of Coca-Cola around the community.

 

          Mr. Rampy, second from the right, received a safe-driving award in 1961. Also shown are: at left, Maurice Duttera, the General Manager of the West Point and LaGrange plants, Harvey Cotton, salesman and later Production Manager at West Point, and at right, Fred Strother.

 

 

As  iconic as the routemen are the Coca-Cola delivery trucks. Since 1909, trucks delivering Coca-Cola have been traveling the roads of LaGrange and West Point, Georgia and nearby Chambers County, Alabama. As Coca-Cola grew, so did its fleet. Today it has one of the largest commercial fleets in the United States.

Below is a slideshow showing the variety of trucks that the West Point and LaGrange plants relied on to deliver “a happy answer to thirst.”

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